


Bruised

by Zorro_sci



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, Misunderstanding, PTSD!Tony, Protective!Bruce, hurt!bruce, suspicious!Clint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-24
Updated: 2014-10-01
Packaged: 2018-02-18 14:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2351120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zorro_sci/pseuds/Zorro_sci
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Bruce hides something from Tony, and it all gets a little out of control.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Tossing, Turning and Swinging

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ME](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=ME).



Bruce was startled to alertness by a sudden pain in his shoulder. He wasn't quite sure what had happened, but the Hulk had taken notice of the possible attack, and was waiting right below the surface. He took in his surroundings, large California king bed, plush comforter, Egyptian cotton sheets; in other words, the penthouse master bedroom. Nothing seemed out of place, until he noticed the movement next to him.

Tony was thrashing and making desperate noises, but still completely asleep. It was likely that he had accidentally struck Bruce while under the influence of whatever nightmare he was currently facing. Bruce understood. He had been there.

He told the Other Guy he wasn't needed, and then reached out to wake Tony. He called his name, and shook him, but he showed no signs of waking. If anything, he seemed to be getting more violent and more desperate. His breathing became labored and ragged, but he still showed no signs of awareness of his surrounding.

Feeling desperate, Bruce wrapped his arms around Tony and held him tightly against his own body. The pressure should help calm his sympathetic nervous system at least a little. It would at least be a start, since it appeared that the other man was having a full-on panic attack.

It was no easy task to gather up Tony while he was flailing across the bed, but Bruce managed it. He was struck a few times during his effort, and Tony fought against him for a few minutes after he had been pulled close, but soon he stilled in Bruce's arms. His breathing became deep and steady again, as he returned to an apparently more peaceful sleep, never having woken once throughout the whole ordeal. 

At least he had calmed down, Bruce thought as he looked down at the man he was cradling against himself. His way of dealing with the situation may not have been the best, but it seemed to have worked. Tony was sleeping soundly, and apparently had escaped whatever horrible dream that was plaguing him earlier. That seemed well worth a couple of desperate, wild blows. It's not like they had been intentional.

Even after he saw the bruises that Tony's fists had left behind when he took his shower the following morning, he didn't change his opinion. He did decide to hide the bruises though. Tony would want to know where they came from, and if he knew he had done it, even if he was asleep at the time, he would feel incredibly guilty. 

_No need for that,_ Bruce thought, as he threw on a long-sleeve button-down shirt.


	2. Long sleeve and makeup

Tony had nightmares regularly over the next several nights. Bruce experimented with different ways of responding to his boyfriend's distress, but in the end, holding him proved to be the most effective. He wasn't usually able to accomplish this completely unscathed, Tony usually got a couple good punches in, but for the first time in a while the engineer was getting full nights of sleep and didn't look like a zombie. As far as Bruce was concerned, that made it all worth it. It wasn't like Tony could _really_ hurt him anyway.

Most of Bruce's bruises were on his back, chest or shoulders, so they weren't visible when he was clothed. Sometimes he would get one or two on his arms, but then he would just wear a long sleeve shirt or a lab coat. Once he got hit in the face, but he just covered up the bruise with makeup. It wasn't like he didn't know how to hide bruises. When he was younger it had been second nature, (but that had been different, he told himself as he covered the bruise on his face).

The downside to all of this was he couldn't be shirtless in front of Tony. They hadn't had sex, or showered together, or done anything of the sort since Tony's nightmares had started. He knew if they ever did, Tony would demand to know how Bruce had gotten the half dozen or so black and blue marks, and he wouldn't let it drop until he knew the truth. That wasn't something that Bruce wanted, so he always found an excuse to avoid those situations, (he was too tired, Hulk was too close to the surface, etc.).

If Tony noticed that something was off, he didn't mention it. Well, he probably did notice, but he seemed to be choosing to give Bruce his space, and that served him just fine. Besides, it was only temporary, he told himself. Only until Tony's nightmares faded.

Unfortunately, Tony wasn't the only one to notice that something was off.


	3. Suspicions

"I'm telling you Nat, something is going on with Dr. Banner. He's stopped rolling up his sleeves, he wears his lab coat outside of the lab, and I swear he was wearing makeup the other day. It's suspicious. It's just like when I was a kid and I was trying to hide . . ." Clint's voice trailed off, but Natasha understood his meaning completely.

"But do really think that's what he's doing?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know," he admitted. "But he and I both know what it's like to hide that sort of thing. It wouldn't be surprising for him to go back to old habits if he should find himself in a . . .well, that sort of situation again."

"Yeah, but he's the Hulk. Do you really think that Hulk would let that happen?" Natasha pressed.

"Nat, Bruce was an abused kid, and his dad beat his mom too. It wouldn't be so surprising if he put up with an abusive relationship after that's how he was brought up," he sighed.

"But, Stark? Really? Do you really think Stark would do that to him?" she asked dubiously.

"Howard Stark was a manipulative, abusive bastard. He may not have hit his kid, but he definitely beat his wife, and he wasn't exactly father of the year. Let's just say, while I hope I'm wrong, I wouldn't be too surprised if his son is carrying on the cycle. They're similar enough in other things," Clint admitted.

Natasha shook her head. She understood Clint's concern, but she really hoped he was overreacting. 

"But you don't even know if he's hiding anything," she countered. "He could just be cold, or have happened to not rolled up his sleeves when you've seen him lately. He might be too distracted by his work to take off his lab coat. Both he and Stark can get pretty obsessed with their work.

I don't think we should accuse Stark of anything until we have some evidence that there's actually something going on."

"You're right," Clint acknowledged. "And I think I have an idea."


	4. Perspectives and Accusations

Everyone in the whole tower knew that Bruce did yoga at five in the morning. His morning routine was like clockwork, and everyone, including Thor had noticed. There was also an unspoken rule that during Bruce's yoga time no one bothered him. Yoga was his time to unwind and to be alone, which with Tony as his extremely energetic and clingy boyfriend, they all figured that he needed.

Clint figured that he was most likely to catch Bruce in an unguarded moment during that time. He had probably gotten so used to the solitude that he wouldn't have his shields up. So, with that in mind, Clint opened the door to the small room filled with mats and started stretching on the other side of the open space.

"Morning, doc," he said casually.

"Morning," Bruce answered neutrally, clearly surprised to see the archer, but trying to hide it as best as he could.

Clint gave the other man a passing glance, but he didn't miss the handful of bruises on his arms. He continued stretching for a few minutes and then turned his attention back to the other man.

"Those bruises look kinda nasty. Thought Big Green prevented that kind of thing," Clint commented conversationally.

"Only if I Hulk-out. There was a lab accident the other day. Minor explosion. Not bad enough to get the Other Guy's attention, but enough to throw a few things around," Bruce offered by way of explanation.

Clint nodded, and let the subject drop even though he could tell Bruce was lying. They spent the rest of their time together in silence. Then, shortly after Bruce had left, Clint went to find Natasha.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Bruce had fist-shaped bruises on his arm," Clint informed when he tracked down the redhead in the common kitchen.

"That doesn't mean . . . " she started to protest.

"And he lied about them," the archer continued. "He said they were from a lab accident."

"How do you know they weren't?" she countered.

"Bruce has an awful poker face. You know that. He couldn't lie to save his life. So the question is why wouldn't he want me to know how he got the bruises? Only thing I can think of is that he's covering for someone . . . Someone like . . . " he started only to be interrupted by Tony lumbering into the room.

"Morning," he groaned as he made a beeline for the coffeemaker.

"Speak of the devil," Clint muttered under his breath while glaring at the billionaire.

"Something wrong, Legolas?" Tony asked, noticing the archer's glare.

"I was just telling Nat here that I saw Bruce's arms while we did yoga this morning," he replied.

"So?" Tony returned, not sure why that was significant.

"So?!?" he repeated incredulously.

"Yeah, so? You saw his arms. He happens to have two of them, and I think they're very nice. Was there more to that thought? Was that your way of saying you've been ogling my guy? Am I suppose to be jealous?" the billionaire dismissed.

"You're something else, Stark. You don't have any shame do you?" Clint said in disgust.

"Okay, now you're confusing me. What should I be ashamed of? You're the one being creepy about my boyfriend. 

Am I supposed to be ashamed of Bruce? Is he not attractive enough for you or something? Because that's not going to happen. I could never be ashamed of Bruce, and if you're actually implying that, I hope you have somewhere else to live.

Or am I supposed to be ashamed of not being jealous? Because I don't really see what I would have to be jealous about, I mean, not that you're not a good looking guy or whatever, but Bruce loves me," Tony mocked.

"Do you ever stop with the bullshit? You love him, huh? Then what's with the bruises all over his arms? What; couldn't help it? You love him, but he just makes you so angry sometimes?" Clint sneered accusingly.

"What bruises? And what exactly are you implying?" Tony returned with an edge to his voice.

"I think you know very well what I'm saying," the archer challenged, stepping into Stark's space confrontationally.

"You actually have the nerve to accuse me of hurting Bruce?!?" The billionaire fumed, pushing back against Clint. "I would never! After all Bruce has been through, the last thing I would ever do is hurt him or take advantage of him! How could you even think that?!?"

"Well, how do you explain the bruises he's been hiding from everyone?!?" Clint returned.

"I don't know . . .I haven't seen them, so if they're there, he's been hiding them from me too," Tony said worriedly, before he added bitterly, "But good to know that your first assumption was that I was abusing him."

Tony turned on his heel and left the room swiftly. The main reason for his haste was his desire to find Bruce and figure out what was going on. Clint, however, only noticed Tony's secondary motivation, which was to get away from Clint's accusations. While Tony wasn't very happy about Clint's accusations, at the moment they took second place to his worry, (because Bruce hiding his injuries couldn't be anything good), but Clint was oblivious to that.

"I told you," he said to Natasha. "He couldn't look more guilty. The overreaction, the fake surprise."

"His surprise seemed genuine to me," she countered.

"I'm telling you Nat, Bruce is lying for a reason. He wouldn't cover something up for no reason. And Tony is hiding something with his 'I would never' act. It all adds up," he reasserted.

"Or you're seeing things that aren't there," she offered as she left the kitchen.


	5. Misdirection

"Bruce?" Tony called as he walked into the lab.

He had searched all over for Bruce after his disconcerting conversation with Clint. He'd been so upset, he hadn't even thought of asking JARVIS where the other man was until after he had been wandering around the tower for close to twenty minutes.

"Yeah?" Bruce asked, not bothering to lift his head from his work.

"Uh . . . Clint, he said he saw some bruises on your arms this morning, and he was wondering if I knew how you got them," Tony said, deciding to take the direct route.

Bruce froze, but didn't say anything.

"That's why you haven't been getting undressed in front of me, isn't it? You've been changing in the other room, and avoiding sex, because you didn't want me to see that you were covered in bruises," Tony continued.

"I wouldn't say covered," Bruce deflected.

"Bruce . . . " Tony warned.

Bruce merely nodded in response before he added simply, "I didn't want you to worry."

"Now that I know you were hiding it, I'm even more worried. Bruce, what happened?" Tony near-pleaded.

"I started sparring with Steve. He thought it would be good for me to know a few moves, in case I ever was in a situation where it would be better for me not to transform, but I still needed to defend myself," Bruce answered.

"Why didn't you just tell me?" Tony inquired, his voice almost hurt.

"I know you, you would worry. I'm indestructible, and sometimes you treat me like I'm made of glass. No one else worries about me when we find ourselves in a fight. They all know the Other Guy will handle it, but you always seem surprised that I'm okay afterward.

Besides, you and Steve have had your differences, and I didn't want to give you another reason to dislike him. Plus, he doesn't realize what's happened and I didn't want him to feel bad. He's really just trying to help," Bruce said with a shrug.

"But Bruce, he shouldn't be leaving behind bruises," Tony protested.

"Riiight, like you've never gotten bruises from sparring."

"I . . Well, I . . Fine, but I still don't like it."

"I know, but leave him be, okay? He'd feel really guilty if he thought he hurt me, and it's not like he hit me that hard. They're minor bruises. It's no big deal."

"But . . ."

"Tony."

"Fine."

With that, he returned to his work in silence, and Tony decided he should let it drop. Bruce was right, accidents did happen during sparring. He shouldn't make Steve feel bad just because he landed a couple of blows on Bruce's arms. It didn't need to be a big thing.

However, when he walked by the slightly ajar bathroom door while Bruce climbed into the shower, and saw the assortment of _a dozen_ or so bruises at various stages of healing covering Bruce's back, chest and arms, he decided he needed to say something. He knew Bruce wouldn't want him to, but this was ridiculous. Bruce should not be getting that beat up. Steve needed to be more careful.


	6. The Truth

"Bruce?" Steve's voice drifted uncertainly into the lab.

"Yeah? Can I help you with something, Steve?" Bruce asked kindly as he made his way over to the door.

"I . . .uh . . Well, Tony came by to talk to me," the young man, and in the moment he did seem very much a twenty-something instead of "Captain America," stuttered uncertainly.

Bruce grimaced. He had hoped that Tony would leave things alone, (especially after he had felt strangely compelled to make up a lie on the spot), but he should have known better. Asking the engineer to drop something once he started it was like asking a sunflower not to follow the sun.

"He asked me to be more careful, because he thought I was beating you up during sparring practice. Do you know anything about that?" he asked as he pinned Bruce with a piercing blue stare, all the nervousness from before suddenly covered by his commanding "Captain" presence.

Under the scrutiny of Steve's stare, Bruce felt a bit like a misbehaving grade schooler. He also felt a strange compulsion rising up in him, like he had when confronted by Clint or Tony. Only this time, instead of feeling the need to lie, he found himself unable to hold in the truth.

"Tony's been having trouble with his PTSD," Bruce said suddenly.

Steve looked at him in confusion, trying to figure out how the two topics were related.

"He's been having nightmares; sometimes ones where he gets violent and thrashes around."

The captain's eyebrows raised as he started to put the pieces together.

"He's hit me a few times while he was sleeping. He can't help it . . . . He's not even conscious when he's doing it . . . But I know that if he knows that he hurt me in any way, shape, or form, it's going to devastate him. . . .so I tried to hide the bruises, but he found out about them, and when he asked about them, I couldn't help it . . . I just came up with the first lie I could think of that I thought he would believe and wouldn't follow up on. So I told him they were from sparring with you. Well . . . . It looks like I was half right. . . I'm sorry, Steve. I never meant for him to involve you . . ." 

"It's okay, Bruce . . . .but don't you think that Tony deserves the truth?" 

Once again he found himself under the scrutiny of the solider, and he found himself having trouble not shifting under his gaze.

"He'll overreact. He'll isolate himself from me in some guilty attempt to protect me. He'll go off to face his demons alone so he 'doesn't hurt me.' I don't want that to happen," Bruce whispered, his honesty so raw that he felt like it had been ripped from inside of him.

"Then tell him that. Tell him everything. Bruce, don't you think lying to him is just going to make things worse?" Steve reasoned.

"Yeah, you're right," Bruce said with a nod, ( _but I'm still not sure I can tell him the truth_ ).


	7. Bad to Worse

"Tony, I need to talk to you," Bruce said solemnly as he crossed the common room to sit next to him.

"About what? And will you be telling the truth this time, or are more lies on the menu?" Tony inquired sharply.

Bruce looked at him in shock. He knew that Tony probably wasn't happy about the lie he had told, but he wasn't expecting this.

"You look confused. I guess I should tell you, I talked to Steve, and he said you politely declined his offer to train with him two months ago, and you and he have never sparred. So, you lied to me. Not only that, you lied to me after you hid the fact that you were hurt from me for _days_ ," Tony clarified viciously.

"Look, Tony, I'm sorry, I . . ." Bruce began helplessly, gesturing desperately with his hands as if he thought that would somehow help him.

"Didn't trust me," Tony stated bitterly.

"No, Tony, I . . . " he argued weakly.

"You're covered in a dozen or more bruises, by my reckoning, and you didn't tell me! That seems like mistrust to me. . . .then when I asked you about them, you lied! I figure I must have done something, I'm not sure what, but something, if you don't feel like you can trust me . . .and Clint . . .well, never mind," Tony ranted, his volume rising with each word he spoke.

"Clint what?" Bruce asked, noting the sadness in Tony's voice as he mentioned it.

"Nothing. I just, I can't be around you right now. Just looking at you makes me angry," he said as he headed for the door.

"Tony, I . . ." Bruce started, trying to think of how to express all the thoughts that were going through his head. 

He knew this was his fault, and he wanted to clear it up. He also really didn't want Tony to stalk off angry. Why had he lied? Why couldn't he have stopped himself?

"Just leave me alone!" Tony shouted at him, before he slammed the door on his way out.

Bruce stared at the door on the verge of tears. He'd really screwed up this time. He shook his head sadly just as Clint made his way into the room.

"You alright, Banner?" he asked gently as he sat in the chair across from him.

"Yeah, fine," Bruce sighed.

"There was an awful lot of yelling," Clint commented neutrally.

"Yeah, Tony's upset with me," he answered numbly.

"Does that happen a lot? You know you don't have to put up with that, right?" the archer questioned as innocuously as he could.

"I deserved it. I really screwed up," Bruce answered sadly.

"Bruce, it's not your fault. Don't let anyone tell you that it is," Clint said firmly.

"But I lied to him. Who else's fault would it be?" he said distantly, still thinking about the hurt on Tony's face as he said "you lied to me."

"Banner, I know Tony's been hitting you . . . " Clint started.

"But it's not like he can help it. He's not doing it on purpose," Bruce defended. 

"Right, because he just loses control when he gets angry. Or he really means well, and most of the time he's the sweetest guy, but sometimes he just can't help himself. 

Bruce, can't you see what's happening? He's hurting you, and that's not okay. You have a right to be safe in your relationship," Clint said urgently.

Bruce stared at the archer for a few long minutes. Was he actually saying . . .

"You think Tony's been abusing me?" he asked in shock.

"He's been hitting you, hasn't he? He's the one who made all those bruises up and down your arms, isn't he?" Clint returned matter-of-factly.

"Well, technically yes, but . . .wait, did you say something to Tony about this?" Bruce asked, his voice growing urgent.

"Yeah, I confronted him this morning. Like I said, he shouldn't be hurting you . . . " Clint answered.

"No!" Bruce interrupted. "No wonder he . . . Look, Tony would _never_ hurt me. Not on purpose. Not consciously. He's been having nightmares. Really violent ones where he thrashes around in bed. That's how he's been hitting me. He hasn't even been awake any of the times he's done it! He doesn't even know about it! 

I mean, I suppose I could get out of bed or whatever, and avoid being hit, but he calms down faster when someone makes physical contact with him. So I choose to stay. . . And unfortunately I also chose not to tell Tony about it. I didn't want him to feel guilty . . .but now, between me lying to him, and you accusing him of partner abuse . . . This is bad."

Clint said something in response to that, but Bruce didn't hear it. He was too busy rushing out of the room to look for Tony. They needed to sort this out, and the sooner the better.


	8. Explosions, Explanations and Mutual Enemies

"JARVIS, where's Tony?" Bruce called as he pressed the button for the elevator.

"Sir has asked me not to tell you, Dr. Banner," the AI replied coolly.

"But I need-" he started.

"However, if you were to use the override code Sir gave you to allow you to track the Iron Man suit, I would not be able to stop you," JARVIS supplied.

"JARVIS, what's the location of the Iron Man suit?" Bruce asked, thankful for the AI's sneakiness.

"Authorization required."

"Banner beta foxtrot twenty-seven eighteen."

"The current coordinates for the Iron Man suit are being downloaded to your phone."

"Thank you, JARVIS."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Tony! Tony!" Bruce called over the sound of the explosions when he found him at one of Stark Industries' old weapons test sites.

The billionaire had decided the best way to blow off some steam was to blow some things up. He'd taken the suit and flown to the test site, blaring AC/DC into the helmet, ready to cause massive amounts of destruction. A goal that had his full attention at the moment.

Bruce kept trying to gain his boyfriend's attention, but he quickly realized that Tony wasn't paying any attention to anything other than his next target. Feeling desperate, he ran out onto the field, and stood between the suit and a pile of metal scraps that seemed to be next in line for destruction. 

At first, it seemed like Tony was oblivious to his presence. He continued at top speed, hands raised and ready to fire the repulsors. Then, the suit suddenly veered and banked to the side, steering around Bruce and the debris. Finally, he heard the clank of the suit landing nearby.

"What is wrong with you?!?" Tony cried as he lifted the faceplate on the armor. "I almost shot you! What were you thinking?!?"

"It got your attention," Bruce said simply.

"At what cost?!? If I hadn't realized you were there in time . . ." he started.

"I would have been fine, and I'm pretty sure Hulk would have known it wasn't your fault," Bruce said with a grimace; he probably should have thought a bit more about what Hulk's reaction would have been before he ran in front of a weaponized suit.

"Believe me, Big Green's reaction to me is the last thing I'm worried about," Tony muttered. "I really could have hurt you."

"Not really, I'm pretty much indestructible. But that's not the point right now. We need to talk about what happened earlier. You asked if I was going to tell you the truth, and I am. 

You wanted to know about the bruises, right? Well . . . I got them over the last few nights."

"How?"

"You-you've been having nightmares. Pretty bad ones, from what I can tell . . .the kind that lead to panic attacks, only they haven't been waking you up . . . No matter how bad it gets . . ."

"Are you saying . . . I did it? I hit you? Clint was right . . . ."

"No. No, he wasn't. You were asleep. You didn't even know I was there. You were trying to protect yourself, and I just happened to be in the way. It wasn't anybody's fault. Well . . ..some of it was my fault, because I decided to get closer to you instead of moving away, but that was _my_ choice. You can't be held responsible for that."

"Why would do that?"

"Because, Tony, you were going into a full blown panic attack, but you weren't waking up, so there was no way to calm you down by talking you through it. So I figured the best thing I could do was pull you close, and hold you tight enough to help calm the response of your sympathetic nervous system . . .and it worked. You calmed down and slept peacefully the rest of the night. So when you had another nightmare the next night, I did the same thing."

"So, you put yourself in a situation where you knew you would probably get punched, just to try and take care of me? Just like you just ran in front of one of my targets to get my attention, or the way you stood between me and that explosion I caused in the lab when I made that calculation error last week. 

You keep trying to protect me, but do you ever think of the potential consequences for you? Your life and safety matter just as much as mine, but you act like you're expendable. It scares me, Bruce."

"Tony, I do think of the consequences, but they're different for me than they would be for someone else. Remember what I said on the Helicarrier? You can't kill me. Not in a lab explosion, not with repulsor blasts, and certainly not with a few wild, blind punches. The risks were minimal."

"You can still get hurt. You're covered in bruises, so that means that when you get hit, it can still do damage, even if it can't kill you. 

Just because you can't die doesn't mean you shouldn't take care of yourself, or that you should put yourself in situations where you know you're probably going to get hurt. You shouldn't purposely cause yourself pain. And you shouldn't let me cause you pain. That's the last thing I want to do . . ."

"You've risk your company and your reputation by using your influence to keep Ross off my back."

Tony opened his mouth to argue, but Bruce beat him to it.

"Don't deny it. I know you have. And I wish you wouldn't put yourself on the line like that for me, especially when I know both your company and your reputation have taken a hit for it . . .and before you start arguing, I know you're going to say that doesn't matter, because you've got it in your head that I'm somehow worth every drop in stock prices or company that doesn't want to have anything to do with you anymore. 

Well, I feel the same way. You're worth every bruise, cut, scrape, explosion and injury-induced Hulk-out, because I love you. I would put up with all of that and more to keep you safe."

"But it's different. When I took on Ross for you, some bigoted idiots came after me. You didn't do any of that . . . "

Bruce raised an eyebrow and looked ready to argue, so Tony rushed to continue.

"At least not directly. But I _am_ hurting you directly. _My fists_ made those bruises, not someone else's."

"You could argue that by letting you take on Ross I knowingly let other people hurt you, whereas since you've only hit me while you were asleep, everything you've done has been unconscious.

The point is, we both have baggage. Crazy Generals, people who want us dead or imprisoned, PTSD, nightmares, and a bunch of other things. Things that could come back and hurt us, but we decided we're in this together, so we face these things together.

You said you were going after Ross because my enemies were your enemies, and I couldn't change your mind. Well, your PTSD is hurting you, so I'm going to do what I can to take it on. Even if that means a few black-and-blue marks. And you can't change my mind."

Tony shook his head in disbelief, "You're ridiculous."

"I love you, too," Bruce said with a smile.


	9. Apologies and Dinners

"Clint?" Bruce said reluctantly as he entered the common living room.

"What's up, doc?" The archer answered with a grin as he turned away from the television screen.

"I just wanted to apologize for being short with you earlier . . . I understand why you thought what you did, and I really appreciate that you were willing to stand up for me. Not many people ever have. . . Even before the whole rage monster thing. . .so, thanks," he said awkwardly, (honestly he wasn't quite sure what to say).

"Hey, you're part of the team, so you're family. Don't worry about it. And, I get it, you were worried about Tony. Speaking of, where is Stark?" Clint said casually, but not casually enough to cover how uncomfortable he was with the semi-"touchy-feely" topic.

"He's downstairs apologizing to Steve. Apparently he used quite a few choice words when he thought my bruises were from sparring with the Captain," Bruce said with a grimace.

Clint faked a wince and said, "No wonder Cap looked so flustered this morning. I'd hate to know what Stark considered 'choice words.' Actually, I really sorta want to know . . . "

"Believe me, it's better if no one ever hears those," he cautioned.

"So . . .wanna help me start the team dinner?" Clint abruptly changed the subject.

"There's a team dinner tonight?" Bruce asked in confusion, it wasn't their regular night, and he didn't remember them saying anything about it earlier.

"Yeah, Steve and I decided that after all the accusations, and misunderstandings, and stuff, we could use some team-bonding time," he explained.

"Sounds good to me. What did you have in mind?" Bruce agreed.

"Lasagna. Lots of it. Thor's flying in to join us. Apparently Jane's busy tonight," Clint said with a smirk.

"Well, we better get started then," Bruce answered, returning the grin, as he made his way into the kitchen.


End file.
